Let’s Play – Building a new park from scratch in East Point

We are a Play Ambassador for Let’s Play and were compensated for this. All thoughts are our own.

It’s good when great things happen locally and that’s just what happened when the City of East Point was awarded a $20,000 Let’s Play grant from Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM!. The park is less than a mile away from the house that I lived in for 10 years, and still own today. It’s rewarding to see the neighborhood that I love get the attention that it deserves.

Jefferson Park is a neighborhood in East Point, Georgia and they were one of the winners of the $20,000 grant from Let’s Play. This means that the park will be torn down and a brand new, state-of-the-art playground will be put in the same spot.

Normally it takes weeks to install a new playground. However this new park will be built in one day. On September 9, 2016, dozens upon dozens of neighborhood volunteers will transform the area into a place that children will spend hours playing. I’m in that neighborhood several times a month and know that there are lots of children in the area that will benefit from the new structure.

What do kids want in a playground?

As an adult I think I know what kids want in a playground. I know what our kids like to do, but Let’s Play held a meeting with a room full of local kids to ask them what they wanted in a new playground. They drew pictures of things they wanted and were quite vocal about what they wanted to see in their neighborhood.

The organizers also conducted a focus group with some local adults to get their ideas for a playground. Many of the people had fond memories of parks that used to be in the area and were really passionate about why having a big, quality space for kids to play was so important to them, the neighborhood and their kids’ futures.

Between now and the build date there will several conference calls with the adults in the neighborhood. These calls will update us on the planning progress, what ideas will be implemented from the children’s drawings and serve as motivation to drum up the volunteers needed to make all of this happen.

This will be fun. It’s a chance for a neighborhood to be on the ground floor-literally, of the planning stages of a new playground that will be bigger and meet the demands of more children and encourage the timeless art of children, running, climbing, moving and playing.

Check out Let’s Play.com for play ideas and other playground builds Dr Pepper Snapple Group has been a part of.